Understanding mega trends in the world’s financial systems

The video clip above highlights the research agenda of the AXA Chair of Global Financial Systems at SOAS University of London.

The investment of €1 million from AXA Research Fund, along with equivalent funding from SOAS University of London will finance a ten-year research programme and the Research Centre for Global Finance.

Professor Victor Murinde said: “The research programme will significantly extend the existing body of knowledge on finance, stability and growth by systematically exploring the role of price and non-price factors in shaping global trends in flow of funds, and by mainstreaming the study of finance in Africa and Asia within global financial analysis.”

Christian Thimann, Director of the AXA Research Fund, said: “This long-term research programme, headed by Professor Murinde, promises to improve the understanding of major structural shifts in the world’s financial and economic systems – or mega trends. This can help identify the drivers of growth in emerging economies, and the issues that lead to financial crashes. The AXA Research Fund is delighted to be able to support this important work.”

Professor Reinhard Bachmann, Head of the School of Finance and Management, said: “The AXA Chair in Global Finance reinforces the School of Finance and Management at SOAS as a world-leading centre for global finance research, in a unique institution that combines disciplinary expertise in finance, management and wider social science with research on Arts and Humanities, Languages and Culture of Asia and Africa in a global context.”

AXA, through its AXA Research Fund, encourages and supports research relating to major changes in modern-day society and the associated risks. The AXA Chair is a highly competitive scheme, designed to support research excellence involving significant advancement in a research field within a host institution.

Only 13 Chairs have been awarded globally in socio-economic risks and the AXA Chair in Global Finance held by Professor Murinde is the first AXA Chair in socio-economic risks in the UK. Professor Jean Tirole, the AXA supported chair at Toulouse School of Economics, won the Nobel Prize for Economics in 2014.